


Neon Signs Reading 'You'll Never Be to Me, What I Am to You'

by flyingmodelrockets



Category: The Front Bottoms
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 05:10:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5193461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingmodelrockets/pseuds/flyingmodelrockets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Because I am in love with you, Brian," doesn't seem like the right answer to any of Brian's questions, even though it's the only thing Mat wants to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neon Signs Reading 'You'll Never Be to Me, What I Am to You'

Brian isn’t drunk. 

No, drunk is too strong of a word.  
But he’s definitely more than tipsy. He’s in that nice in-between stage, where your body is warm and things are a little blurry.  
The alcohol doesn’t burn anymore, and to be honest, he’s not even sure what he has swirling in the plastic red cup.

Someone had handed him a bottle with a scorpion floating around in it, he’d hardly noticed though.

How could someone overlook a dead fucking scorpion swishing around a suspicious looking bottle of liquor probably made in someone’s basement?

Well, because Brian’s focus was solely dedicated to Mat Uychich, who was currently seated on a deck chair on the opposite side of the yard.

Mat was a friends brother, which automatically made him Off Limits, but Brian wasn’t so sure the rules applied when Mat looked that fucking good.

Glossy lips, wet from the beer in his hand, remained pressed together as Mat listened to some drunken girl telling him a story he had already lost interest in but was too polite to interrupt.  
Big brown eyes flickered across the yard, ready to blink out a Morse code of ‘help me’ to anyone he could make contact with.

Mat locked eyes with Brian, and felt the familiar pang of, what was it? Guilt? …maybe even love?

Truth be told, Mat had harboured a huge crush on Brian for years now. It had started as a sweet, innocent high school crush he had swore to himself he would never act on, but now it consumed his thoughts.  
This ‘crush’ has just been growing over time, as the two grew up from gawky kids to awkward teenagers.  
It felt like a hellish torture every time Brian ruffled Mat’s hair and called him kid, or bro, as if it were a reminder in neon lights, screaming ‘ _I will never be to you, what you are to me. I will never see you as more than my friends brother, you will always the little boy I used to tease’._

Mat had practically grown up around Brian, and for the life of him, he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment where Brian had gone from ‘brother’s dorky friend’ to the person who makes his heart race, to the one who keeps him awake at night, to the person who makes him blush with just a smile.

It had just happened, and there was no way of turning it off, as much as Mat tried.

Mat had a girlfriend a while back, in an effort to try to move Brian out of his mind, but it hadn’t lasted long. Sure, she was pretty, and she was nice.

But every time he kissed her, he thought of Brian. He pretended it was Brian pulling his hair, and biting his lip. He moaned Brian’s name into her mouth, and although it had been muffled and inaudible to her, Mat heard it loud and clear as if screaming into a megaphone.

  
Brian glanced up at Mat again, and this time locked eyes with him. Mat threw the silent, wide-eyed stare that universally meant ‘Save me’ at Brian, desperately hoping he would catch it like a football player in the final moments of the game.

Thankfully, Brian wasn’t daft enough to miss this glaringly obvious sign (though able to miss every other signal Mat had ever sent him that basically screamed ' _I’m in love with you’_ ) and he headed on over.

“Scuse me,” Brian said, with a half smile that melted Mat’s heart to the point Mat had to stare at the label on his beer to stop himself blushing.

The girl stopped talking, then slowly turned to Brian. She flicked her hair over her shoulder, and pressed her lips together in the way girls so often do when annoyed.

“Can I help you?” she asked, in a way that implied she definitely did not want to help Brian at all.

“Guy over there, the one in the gray shirt, he’s been dying to talk to you all night. You might have better luck with him than this one,” Brian answered, with a grin at Mat.

The girl didn’t even say goodbye, as she fixed her hair and walked off.

“Thanks,” Mat mumbled, staring at the cracked pavement.

“Yeah, it must have been awful having a pretty girl try to chat you up,” Brian teased, bumping his shoulder against Mat’s as he sat down, “That guy does fancy her though, I wasn’t lying,”

“She um, I mean…she’s pretty,” Mat managed to say, feeling like he needed to answer with something so Brian wouldn’t leave.

“Not your type?” Brian replied, “Yeah man, I get it,”

  
The alcohol had caught up with Mat rather suddenly and unexpectedly, or maybe he had just drunk a lot more than he  thought to avoid speaking to that girl.

“You do?” Mat said softly, afraid of what else he might say.

“Yeah, your last girlfriend was a redhead, wasn’t she?” Brian replied, and Mat’s heart sunk again.

“Yeah,” he managed to choke out.

“Plenty more redheads out there, man. Don’t worry about it,” Brian continued, “Why did you two break up anyway? I mean, if you don’t mind my asking,”

Mat sat in silence for a moment, his drunken mind urging him that ‘ _Because I am in love with you’_ was a good answer, while the dwindling sober side of him whispered ‘ _Don’t you fucking dare tell him_ ’.


End file.
